


Heart of Aether and Souls of Void

by PowerMCking



Category: Dauntless (Video Game), Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Comfort/Angst, Gen, Hollow needs a hug, Human in Hallownest, Ostian Repeaters, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Dream No More Ending (Hollow Knight), Self-insert... kinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28099116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PowerMCking/pseuds/PowerMCking
Summary: During an Attack at the city of Ramsgate, a Slayer was throwned (quite literally) into another Dimension.Currently stuck in world Ruled by Gods and Bugs, Marcel must adapt to the challenges this world throws at him.But unknown to him, the portal that brought him there wasn't as closed as he first thought.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	1. Evacuation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To put simply, this chapter takes place during this:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yHHWi3LzM4&ab_channel=PlayDauntless  
> Enjoy :D

"LOOK OUT"

Before the Guard could react, Marcel tackled him, and not a moment to soon as a huge boulder coverd in purple fire landed where the guard was standing just a second ago. After landing on the floor, they both quickly get up on their feet in order to continue facing the _Riftstalker_ they were battling on the open Street.

There was fire and debris littering the streets, collapsed buildings were blocking access to other parts of the city, the sky was dark and clouded, massive chunks of stone engulfed in purple flames were raining from the ominous landmass floating atop the city.

The _Umbral Deeps_ have arrived to the city of Ramsgate, and with it, the Behemoths that inhabit it.

If you thought that Behemoths were already bad on their own, you won't believe the nightmare Umbral ones can be, they are one of, if not, the most dangerous type there is. Only the most experienced and skilled Slayers are capable enough to face them, and luckly for the two of them, Marcel Fits in that category.

The Riftstalker opened one of its signature umbral portals and jumped through it. Marcel who has encountered with enough Riftstalkers in the past to know what happens next, quickly pulled a concussive grenade from his belt and threw it behind him. And if as on cue, a portal opened behind them and the Riftstalker emerged from it.

The moment the grenade contacted with its snout, it exploded and the umbral Behemoth crashed head-first into the stone road, flipping over its head and landed heavily on the ground, stunned. Marcel takes this opportunity to grab his repeaters, and proceeds to empty their clips onto the Riftstalker's skull before it can get up.

Without a chance to retaliate, the Riftstalker dies on the spot, the life leaving its eyes as large amounts of umbral aether, blood and goo that used to be its brain leaked from a gaping hole on its forehead.

The guard was breathing heavily, tightly grabbing his large axe. It was clear that he isn't used to this much action. He signaled a small group of civilians hiding behind some buildings to come out.

"Quick, to the docks!" the guard said and everyone started to run for it.

They had to take many detours do to the amount of damages the main streets had, but thankfully they weren't far from the city's main docks and didn't encountered with more Behemoths afterwards, which was a miracle considering the current events.

The docks were bursting with people by the time they arrived, Slayers and city guards were forming a perimeter around the docks to fend off any threat that might appear. The higher-ups had ordered a full evacuation of the city, and by the looks of it, Marcel's group was the last one to arrive.

Once in the docks, Marcel makes his way to the front of the crowd, crossing between the panicked citizens. Scared parents were hugging their equally scared children, merchants were carrying all the goods they could carry in their hands, and all medical personel available were tending to the injured the best they could. Reaching the front, Marcel gaves a sigh of relief at the sight of familiar faces, Katerin Sorrel, his mentor, and his good friend Markus Boehr.

Marcel's attention was soon drawn to a big, familiar spherical object in front of them.

The _Portal Driver..._

An ancient Void Runner relic believed to be capable of opening portals to anywhere the user desires. Marcel has seen the relic a few times before, when exploring the Umbral Deeps in recon missions, he always felt drawn to it, that it was special somehow. When he heard the news that a recovery group went and retrieved the artifact from the bowels of the Deeps, he thoght of asking Arkan Drew, the Aethersmith tasked with analysing it, to let him help with the research. But soon after the Driver's arrival, the Behemoths attacks on the city border became more frecuent than usual, which made sense seeing that the Driver gave off an intense Aether signal that any hungry Behemoth would liked to feed on.

What was not expected was for the island that houses the Umbral Deeps to make all the way from the heart of the maelstrom to Ramsgate's front door seemingly overnight!

_How is that even possible?_

"Marcel, glad to see you made it" said a deep male voice, It was Markus, who was approaching him.

They had met during Marcel's final test to become a Slayer, a lightning had struck the airship they were in, leaving a hole on the cockpit. Katerin, who's Markus closest friend, would have died if it weren't for Marcel, she would have fell to the abyss that lies below the Shatterd Isles. After saving her and single-handedly killing his first Behemoth, Marcel became a fully fleshed Slayer, and good friends with Markus.

"Glad to see you too" responded Marcel, happy to see his friend alright.

"Same here. Marcel, I assume your group was the last one, right?" asked a female voice, it was kat's, she was standing alongside Arkan who was inspecting the Driver.

It was clear that the plan was to use the Driver to escape to a safer place. Ramsgate was sadly beyond repairs and Behemoth infested, so they would have to re-build their homes somewhere else.

The thought of leaving Ramsgate behind didn't set well in Marcel's heart, afterall, he had lived in the city for as long as he can remember. The city held importance in his mind, but now there was nothing he could do.

Marcel pushed those thoughts aside for another time, right now, he needed to focus on the matter at hand.

"By the looks of it, yes, but I can't be certain" Marcel told. Kat nodded with a determined look on her face and addressed Arkan.

"Arkan, is the Driver ready yet?" Kat asked. Most of the airships had been compromise during the first hours of the attack and there weren't enough to fully evacuate everyone.

"Yes!" Arkan said. "If I'm right, it's our only chance-"

The unmistakeable shriek of a _Shrowd_ filled the air, people began to scream in fear as the aformentioned Behemoth landed ontop of a building, slowly descending onto the floor, its nightmarish purple eyes never leaving the terrorised crowd. Guards and Slayers alike charged at the mosntes, but the Shrowd easily knocked them off their feet with a ground slam and launched them like ragdolls with a backhanded swipe.

That definitely called kat and Marcel's attention.

"Arkan, activate the Driver NOW! Marcel, cover me!" Kat yelled as she unsheathed her longsword. Both of the dashed throught the crowd towards the umbral Behemoth.

Arkan turned his head back at the Driver and placed the palm of his hand on a disc on the side of the relic.

"Well..." he closed his eyes and twists it. "Here goes nothing"

There was an activation sound, the lines engraved on its surface began to filled with a purple glow and a high pitch humming noise emanated from it. A few feet behind it appeared a small purple light that erupted into a large umbral portal.

A peaceful plain surrounded by mountains in brought daylight was visible from the other side.

"The portal is open! Everybody go Throught!" Arkan commanded.

In what appeared no time at all, everyone is running towards the portal in a hurry. A few guards began to help Arkan move the Driver towards the portal. It's a device to powerful and valuable to be left behind.

Meanwhile, Kat and Marcel were doing everything they could to buy them as much time as possible. They knew they wouldn't be able to killed the Shrowd, fighting the raven-like monstrosity was already hard with a 4-man squad, even more so with only two people, no matter how skilled they are. It didn't helped that they ran out of tonics, but somehow they were holding. Kat was dodging and parrying the Shrowd's attacks as they came to keep its attention on her while Marcel flanked its sided, firing shot after shot at its legs from its blind spots. The Shrowd, being overwhelmed by their coordinated attacks, goes into its Aether-Charged state and punched the ground in an explotion, sending balls of unstable umbral aether everywhere. One of this balls landed on the Driver, starling Arkan and the others.

The Portal Driver made a weird sound and not far from the evacuation portal a new portal slowly opened, Arkan's eyes widening in wonder at the sight of this new portal. It was smaller and darker than the other, it was lacking some of the dark-purple pigmentation normal to umbral portals, and whatever lied on the other side wasn't visible.

"Fascinating" Arkan whispered to himself in fascination.

Before his mind could began to theorize about it, the Driver began to shake slightly and release sparks, the sound coming from the evac portal grew in volume as it started to shrink.

The guards resumed their efforts to push the Driver throught the portal until it crossed.

The Shrowd Shrieked, not happy that his meal was getting away. It launched itself into the air, pulling its razorsharp talons out and glides towards the evac portal with Kat and Marcel standing inbetween. Marcel saw a small window of opportunity and threw a concussive greanade.

Just like the Riftstalker from earlier, the explotion successfully grounds it.

As the Shrowd hits the ground, the last citizens manage to cross the evac portal, now half the size.

"Kat, the portal is distabilizing! You need to cross NOW!" Arkan shouted from the other side.

Kat and Marcel turned to look at the shrinking portal.

"That's our cue. Lets go!" Kat said. No need to tell him twice.

Both of them started running to the closing portal.

They were so close when a shriek claimed Marcel's attention. Looking to the side, Marcel saw that the Shrowd had recovered and was making a swipe to...

!!!

"KAAT!!"

Marcel pushed Kat into the evacuation portal.

The Shrowd's swipe connected with Marcel's body instead of Kat's and he was throwned to the second portal.

Time seemed to slow down for Marcel as he Flied away from the portal, his friend's horrifed faces are the last thing he sees as the evac portal closes and he falls into the dark embrace of the second one.

Marcel felt pain flow through his body as he crossed it, the sheer energy emanating from it was burning him from the inside, the feeling dissipated quickly before he could get a chance to cry out.

Once he was out of the portal, his body landed on the ground and the back of his head hit a hard rough surface, pain made itself known as his sight began to blur.

Before pain and exhaustion claimed his tired mind, He got a glimpse of a ~~white ball~~.

 _No_... A white head with two... _horns?_

Coming towards him.

Marcel fell unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, you actually read it...  
> Or you just scrolled down, in that case you be you I guess.
> 
> So... First chapter!  
> What do you guys think?


	2. An Uneventful day on Dirtmouth (Part I)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The residents of Dirtmouth are having a peaceful day.  
> Or so they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, Power here!  
> I wanna say this chapter sets the world of HollowKnight in this fic. (which ending, some characters and their personalities, etc.)  
> Also, feel free to correct me in grammar mistakes.  
> Now... Let see what our favorite Trio of bugs are up to nowadays.

Ghost jumped as high as their little legs and Monarch Wings could, but Grimmchild just kept flying out of their reach every time Ghost got closer. Landing on the ground Ghost turned their head up and looked at the flying bug.

Grimmchild just chirped happily in response to Ghost's stare, wiggling left and right in a mocking gesture. _Tiny_ _thief_. He was clearly pleased with his little antic. A small bundle of silk dangled from a loose thread on his fangs, shining a tiny bit under the lumafly's glow. Sister had given that toy to Ghost so Ghost and friends could play while she did things. The weaverlings, Grimmchild and Ghost were sitting on the bench Ghost likes in Dirtmouth tossing the toy between themselves in some sort of game when Grimmchild thought it would be entertaining to just, steal the toy and run away with it.

Grimmchild was too preoccupied with his victory wiggle that he didn't saw that one of the weaverlings was jumping for his little treasure. Grimmchild noticed and dodged the little spider with ease, the latter landing on Ghost's forehead. Ghost recoiled a little from the impact but kept their footing. They could heard how Grimmchild was laughing now, alongside the tiny footsteps of the other two weaverlings approaching Ghost. Ghost carefully positioned the weaver that hit them so that they would be sitting top of Ghost's head. They turned their attention to Grimmchild once more, he was now flying away towards the south of town. _Ghost will get toy back._

Ghost alongside the weaverlings gave chase.

* * *

Hornet was standing on top of a lampost near the stagstation of Dirtmouth surveiling the area. With her needle at hand she looked around, her eyes in search of something that might pose a threat to the town, or is out of the ordinary...

At least, as ordinary as it could get, do to previous events.

It has been around five months since the infection was cleansed thanks to her sibling's efforts, yet so much and so little had changed since. For starters, the kingdom was finally freed from the dream plague. The _Infection._ Without the Old Light's wrath to fuel it, the Infection withered away, leaving only the cold, empty bodies of those who were infected to crumble and fall to the ground, letting the minds that were consumed by _Her_ able to reach their final sleep after so long.

The corpse of Hallownest finally laid still... and Hornet was thankful for that.

She was thankful that she no longer needed to fight her shell off every single day just to stay alive.

She was thankful that Hallownest could finally move on from the wounds of the past and heal.

She was thankful that her Mother's sacrifice wasn't for naught, That Herrah didn't perished for nothing.

But what she was truly thankful for... was that Ghost managed to save **someone** she thought she had lost forever...

Her sibling... _**Hollow.**_

Hollow, no longer called "The Hollow Knight" was freed from the imposible task their Sire had forced upon their shoulders since the moment they hatched and emerged from the Abyss. She remembers how it all happened clear as water. After she interfered in fight between the little ghost and the Hollow Knight, the inside of the Black Egg Temple became filled with a heavy black mist that made Hornet lose her senses. When she woke up she noticed that the Black Egg was gone, only a gaping crater filled with small puddles of void remained. She heard the sound of something moving behind her. When she turned to see what it was, she was shocked of what she saw, not only did the little ghost lived the encouter with the Old Light but also that the hollow knight was alive! It was on the ground, weakened and injured, but pretty much alive. It slowly raised its head and looked around. She looked into its eyes and saw that the infection was gone.

It was gone. It was over, It was-

The eyes of the Hollow Knight landed on her and it tensed, ~~its~~ eyes started to leak void that looked like tears as ~~its~~ body started to tremble. Hornet felt something slide down her cheeks. It were tears. She was crying. She began to walk towards ~~it~~ , but it became difficult as she felt her legs weaken with each step, until her knees gave in and she dropped in front of **them**. **T** **HEY** were alive, **they** were back-

She got her **Sibling** **BACK!!**

She embraced her sibling in a tight, heartwarming hug allowing their mask to touch. She felt an weak arm pull her closer, her sibling wanted to also embrace her.

After a long and tearful reunion, Ghost helped her take their sibling to the nearest Hot Spring so they could mend their wounds. During their time in the spring, it was decided that they will live in Dirtmouth for the time being.

That thought made Hornet moved her gaze from her task to see her sibling. They were sitting on the ground, leaning their back against the left wall of the shopkeeper's store. She focused her eyes at their cloaked body. Even with the help from the soul-infuse waters that the Hot Springs provide, Hollow's body was still in a fragile state, their shell was full of scars deep and long. Even if they molted, which Hornet didn't know if it was even possible, they would sadly stay. The entirety of their left arm was gone, leaving only a stump at their shoulder, and there was a large crack that extends from the top of their right eye all the way over to the back of their mask, which was currently being covered by a bandage.

They were recovering well physically, mentally... not so much. They were still getting used to expressing their thoughts, showing their feelings and... making their own choices with their own will. They repressed their own thoughts for so long in order to be _"Pure"_ that they never learned how to be alive. Match that with the long torture they suffered from _Her_ and you have a shattered mind. It didn't helped that, about a month ago, she had been captured by the bell cult and taken to the kingdom of Pharloom. _To many hours on the run._ The only good things she got from that experience was saving the imprisoned weavers... and meeting Lace.

When she returned to Hallownest, the first thing that Hollow did the moment they saw her, was to stick to her like they were made of sticky weaving. According to Ghost and some residents of Dirtmouth, Poor Hollow had blamed themselves from her disapperance, thinking that it was their fault that Hornet had gone missing. Now every time Hornet leaves for long periods of time, Hollow suffers a mental breakdown, which is why she was surveiling Dirtmouth and the area around it instead of patrolling the Howling Cliffs. Even with the Infection gone and no real danger for travelers to come to the kingdom, Hornet was not taking any chances by leaving her duty as Hallownest's Protector.

_"Nyah~"_

Hornet saw the Troupe Master's child flew by with Ghost and the three weaverlings chasing after him. The child had the ball of silk hornet made for her sibling in his little fangs. Its surprising that the silk hasn't caught on fire yet. Hornet had given them that improvised trinket with the sole purpose of keeping Ghost from disappearing again. She loves her sibling and knows that Ghost can be patient, but they have the worst habit of leaving without telling someone when the grow restless.

 _"Well..."_ Hornet thought. _"As long as it keeps them from wandering around, its fine."_

She turned her attention at the town once more to resume her surveillance. She took notice of the change in the lighting of the area as well as the shade of the sky, it was clouded and grey...

 _Right..._ Another thing that changed since the infection perished was that, apparently, their Sire had placed a spell of stasis all over hallownest when the sealing took place, with the seal now undone, the flow of time could finally be felt again. When before the sky always stayed dark, foggy and unmoving, now changed colors and brought a force called "weather"...Yeah, It took Hornet a little bit to get used to the... "new" constant changes... _at least the better visibility was useful,_ and judging by the intensity, it was around late noon. Enough time to do her patrol and go to Greenpath to hunt their dinner.

At the intersection she currently was, there was Elderbug standing in his usual spot near the lampost and the bench, watching the children play. Looking towards the East, the Stagstation laid open, the map shop was open with the Cartographer and his wife most likely inside. Near, a bettle was listening to...Zote, the latter saying something about...mightiness? Further ahead the well to the crossroads was silent, _as it should always be._ Further more there was the town's gravejard, the lift to the crystal mines and the cave of the Confessor.

Towards the North, there wasn't much activity inside the town, she saw the few bugs that were out of their houses do their day-to-day tasks without much trouble, she could identify three of them out of the bunch. The Archivist seems to be having a conversation with the little miner her sibling rescued from the mines. Not far off, the fool that Ghost saved from dying on Kingdom's Edge was sitting on a staircase watching other bugs pass by, seemingly with nothing to do.

Not many bugs survived the infection and the few that did woke up either they left the kingdom or moved to Dirtmouth, needless to say most of the bugs in the town were travelers who tend to leave after a few week. Atleast they will spread the word that the kingdom is now safer and new merchants could come. _I_ _swear if Sly doesn't lower his prices..._

Turning her head towards the West, The Shopkeeper's store was open, _the latter undoubtedly_ _couting geo._ Hollow was still resting on the left, but they were not the only ones there, the cicada warrior that became friends with Ghost was also resting on the right wall, snoring loudly. At the outskirts of town, the scarlet tents of the nightmare troupe were visible, and even with this "new-found" lighting, it still gave off a scarlet glow from the inside. An accordion could be faintly heard from the distant. She tilted her eyes up slightly to see the entrance to the kingdom. Nothing seems to be coming from King's Pass.

And finally to the South, there is only empty, barren land. The only signs of activity there was a flying red bug being chased by a little ghost and three tiny spiders.

Its seems it is just another uneventful day in Dirtmouth.

"Miss Hornet? Is everything alright?" Asked Elderbug.

Hornet hopped from her spost on the lampost onto the floor gracefully. "Everything is alright Elderbug, just watching over the town."

Truly an uneventful day.

* * *

Ghost jumped and managed to touch the underside of the ball. _Yes!!_ Grimmchild was getting tired, Ghost could almost reclaim their toy.

"Little ghost, we are heading to Greenpath. Come." Said Sister.

Ghost jumped again and managed to cut some of the strings with their claw. _Almost..._

"Ghost, you hear me, we're leaving." Sister said again, this time with some hints of annoyance.

 _Ghost heard Sister._ Ghost lowered themselves. Just one last jump and-

_**~~"̣̥̓͑K̡͕̽͞A̢̡̱̯̐̂́͞A̯͔͍̥͗̈́̅͡T̗̯̖͑̃͊!͎̤͖͞͠!̛̜̠̙̜͆̎͆͑͟"̢̣̱̲͑̍̕͢͠͝~~ ** _

Ghost's body flinched and tensed. _Something happening, something big!_

Ghost barely registered a startled yelp from Elderbug at Hollow's sudden movements. _Sibling felt too! Something Close!_

"Hollow! what's wrong?" Hornet asked with a worried tone on her voice.

_THERE!!_

Both Hollow and Ghost snapped their head towards the outskirts of town at the south, just in time to see a tiny light of purple coloration appeared not far from Dirtmouth.

"What the-" Hornet couldn't even complete the sentence as the tiny light erupted into a large liquid-like distorted circle, it was black like void... but it had odd _purple-ish_ _outline and glow._ It emited a strange otherworldly sound.

Ghost grabbed and brandished their Pure Nail from their back as the inside of it began to turn an intense bright purple. _Whatever this circle-thing is, Ghost and their siblings will fight it-_

Something was spat out of the circle-thing and dropped to the ground...

It dropped somethin- Someone! It was moving!

Ghost started to walk towards it. Ghost needed to know if it was friend or foe. "Ghost! Stop!" Ghost stopped moving, not because their Hornet told them to, but because the sounds from the circle-thing increased as it rapidly shranked. The moment the circle completly shranked back into a tiny light, it exploded in a strong force that shook the ground as a Massive wave of purple light traveled across all the surrounding area.

* * *

The Troupe Master was fast asleep in his personal quarter, his mind was tending to the Nightmare Heart needs in the Nightmare realm.

A unknow force followed by a slight breeze made the Scarlet Flames in the lanterns around to flicker with purple sparks for a moment. Grimm suddenly jolted awake, eyes wide open, he fell from his perch in a undignified manner and his back landed on the hard floor. He ignored the slight irritation in favor of getting up quickly. _Something has shaken the Nightmare Heart... Something **Powerful**._

Grimm's eyes widen even more at one single thought. _The Child_. He must make sure his child is safe. Grimm disappeared in a puff of red smoke.

* * *

At the far edges outside the kingdom, Bardoon was woken from his nap.

"Hmm...?" The old catepillar had felt something, something _differnt._ He wonders what could had happened. 

He might not be a wyrm or have foresight, but thanks to his old age and wisdom he has something that has proven to be very useful along his long life. The gift of the "World Sense". He entered into deep thought in order to see what is happening in Hallownest.

At the cave of spores, three sisters felt the world shake and began to prepare for battle.

In the top of the world, crystals shine with a newfound glow and an old bug made of gear and metal moves for the first time in ages.

On a lake of acid in the land of Green, Unn looks at the ceiling.

At the gardens of her majesty, the Root gasped as she felt something. _A disturbance perhabs..._

In the cliffs of great winds, a cocoon of life shakes and grows.

Below the city of endless rain, the Seeker of Gods mutters about new Gods.

Deep below the world, the ocean grows restless.

And all around the kingdom, a new _light_ leaks into our world thru cracks left behind by the arrival of an _Unique individual._

Interesting indeed.

But the question is...

_Can the Pale Children and the Visitor work together to face the challenge ahead?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, We're set!  
> Big things are coming to Hallownest.
> 
> I'm not joking.
> 
> They are big.


End file.
